Hunter 34357 3-1/2-Gallon CareFree Plus Humidifier with PermaWick Filter
by Hunter
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Hunter 34357 3-1/2-Gallon CareFree Plus Humidifier with PermaWick Filter
Customer Review: Robust and effective
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had my Hunter 34357 for 18 months now. I've been pleased with its performance. It's definitely not quiet when on the High setting, but I don't mind. The digital humidistat gives you instant feedback on how well it's doing, and with the amount of water it goes through in a day, it's clearly doing something. My space is also about 1200 sq. ft., and it has been able to keep things around 50% humidity even with poor insulation and frequent forced-air heating.
The 34357 has been maintenance-free for as long as I've owned it. It's nice that the PermaWick doesn't need replacing, because it gets really nasty-looking with all the minerals from the water and dust from the air. The only big problem I had was that one time when I had just filled the tank from the sink and was carrying it back to the humidifier, the Easy-Tote Handle snapped off the tank, which fell to the floor and partially crushed the tank cap. This was over a year after I purchased the unit. To Hunter's credit, not only did the tank continue to work pretty well even with a crushed cap, but Hunter immediately sent me a free replacement tank and cap, no questions asked.
I would recommend this unit to anyone who doesn't mind its noise level, which is about the same as a box fan on medium-high. You can also switch it to Low, which is hardly noticeable. I've had it for two winters now, and I've left it on High for days on end, and it still runs great.
Customer Review: Great humidifier, now that Hunter's fixed it
Summary: 5 Stars
We bought one of these Hunter humidifiers a few years ago. I liked the big tank, low-maintenance and no consumables (no wicks or filters to buy). The only problem was, as others have mentioned, that often when it switched off, a gallon or more of water would promptly dump onto my floor. I finally called Hunter to complain about it, and I have to say I'm incredibly impressed with their customer service, and with the simple fix (new design for the tray) which appears to fix the problem completely. This is now a very competent humidifier, and we're really happy with it. You won't see a cool plume of water vapor spewing from this unit, but it does work really well, and it's very easy to keep clean (just throw parts of it in the dishwasher, and use vinegar and water to de-calcify the other parts).
For those who are shopping for a humidifier, you first have to decide what's important to you. For me, the ultrasonic ones are a no-go because they spew white powder all over my room (mineral dust from our hard water). The hot steam ones are a no-go because they get all nasty from bacteria, fungi, etc. I don't want to breathe that stuff in. And while the fan is far from silent, we actually like it at night, it's a nice gentle drone that helps lull us to sleep.
Nice job, Hunter, on fixing the original design flaw, and on supporting the product so well.
Customer Review: Would consider getting another product
Summary: 2 Stars
I purchased this humidifier to replace an older Holmes model that still works well, but leaves "white dust" everywhere. This humidifier rectified the white dust problem, however, it runs very loud. I had the first one received, swapped by Amazon after not having any success in dealing directly with Hunter. Amazon swapped the unit out effortlessly and a replacement arrived within days of making the request.
The first one we received, sounded like we had a helicopter in our small four room apartment. The thumping rotor sound of the fan kept us awake. The second unit was much better for the first week. After that, it became increasingly louder. Last night, the unit took on a new sound that required this unit to be shut off during the night. The humidifier's fan made a noise similar to when someone puts playing cards onto bicycle spokes. Upon inspection, there was nothing that could be performed to mitigate the fan noise
Aside from the loud noise, although the unit went through a gallon of water each day, using two hygrometers, one placed in the room with the humidifier, the other located in a bedroom (our apartment is about 650 sq. ft.), the humidity level never significantly increased, and did not reach the level of humidity achieved by the much smaller Holmes model it replaced.
Customer Review: Humidistat fails, makes unit worthless within 3 weeks
Summary: 1 Stars
Review title says it all. Unit worked for about a week, then humidistat went on the fritz, turning the unit on and off erratically, without any observable pattern. Resetting the unit, adjusting the desired RH, moving it to a different room... none of it helped. In a very dry house, the built-in barometer would say that RH was above 80% and so the unit would not turn on. Suddenly it would say the RH in the room dropped below 20% and the unit would turn on, usually for 3-5 minutes, but sometimes for hours, it was unpredictable. When it cut off, it said the room was back to above 80%. Needless to say, the barometer/humidistat was faulty, otherwise we would have had a major weather system in our living room with those kinds of instantaneous changes in humidity.
Not a big deal, but when I called customer service and sat on hold for almost 45 minutes, they had NO interest in helping me solve the problem, provide a replacement part - the representative actually claimed the unit did not have any parts, or do anything at all. I was just told to send it back to Amazon and a get another one. Amazon, as always, was great about the return.
I just noticed the price of this unit has increased by about $30 since I bought it a month ago. I won't be getting another one of these.
Customer Review: Noisy, unacceptably noisy...
Summary: 1 Stars
I've had four of these Hunter humidifiers over the past ten years. As a cool water evaporative humidifier, they are very effective at putting quite a bit of moisture into the air, without the dust from the mist of the other types of humidifers. The original units that I had five to ten years ago would last three to five years before becoming noisy (usually squeaky). Last fall, I needed to buy a new one because the old one was getting squeaky. This one looks to be the same design, but it lasted only eight weeks before the fan became unacceptably noisy -- with more of a loud, rattling propeller sound. I read a few of the other reviews, and others are experiencing the same thing. I contacted customer service at Hunter Fan Company, and they asked for the date codes and agreed to send a replacement unit. Well, the replacement unit lasted four weeks before the exact same defect began -- a loud, annoying fan that you can hear across the house.
The product label says "Made in China." My guess is that Hunter Fan Company, like so many others in this economy, found a cheap Chinese company to copy the design. Either that, or one of their designers made a cost reduction that compromises quality. Either way, I can't recommend these humidifiers anymore...